kid lit
V.20 No.36 | 9/8/2011

Heather Mathews
Author Interview
You Can’t Escape The Wikkeling
Kids’ novel is engaging and spooky for adults, too
The Wikkeling
Young Henrietta doesn’t have much going for her. She’s squat, pimply and flushes easily. She ranks lowest in her class and is easily the least popular kid in the school. Yet this is the heroine of Steven Arntson’s The Wikkeling. In a brusque paragraph toward the beginning, Arntson tells the reader she will not become beautiful, find a cure for pimples or discover she’s actually a princess. He kindly suggests that if one wants a book of that nature, any school librarian can help.